320 THE POPULAR SCIENOR MONTHLY 
ministration there were classified coal lands amounting to 5,476,000 
acres, and there were withdrawn from entry for purposes of classifica- 
tion 17,867,000 acres. Since that time there have been withdrawn by 
my order from entry for classification 77,648,000 acres, making a total 
withdrawal of 95,515,000 acres. Meantime, of the acres thus with- 
drawn, 11,371,000 have been classified and found not to contain coal, 
and have been restored to agricultural entry and 4,356,000 acres have 
been classified as coal lands; while 79,788,000 acres remain withdrawn 
from entry and await classification. In addition 336,000 acres have 
been classified as coal lands without prior withdrawal, thus increasing 
the classified coal lands to 10,168,000 acres. 
Under the laws providing for the disposition of coal lands, the mini- 
mum price at which lands are permitted to be sold is $10 an acre; but 
the secretary of the interior has the power to fix a maximum price and 
to sell at that price. By the first regulations governing appraisal, ap- 
proved April 8, 1907, the minimum was $10, as provided by law, and 
the maximum was $100, and the highest price actually placed upon any 
land sold was $75. Under the new regulations, adopted April 10, 1909, 
the maximum price was increased to $300, except in regions where there 
are large mines, where no maximum limit is fixed, and the price is 
determined by the estimated tons of coal to the acre. The highest 
price fixed for any land under this regulation has been $608. The 
appraised value of the lands classified as coal lands and valued under 
the new and old regulations is shown to be as follows: 4,303,921 acres, 
valued under the old regulation at $77,644,329, an average of $18 an 
acre; and 5,864,702 acres classified and valued under the new regulation 
at $394,203,242, or a total of 10,168,623 acres, valued at $471,847,571. 
For the year ending March 31, 1909, 22” coal entries were made, 
embracing an area of 35,331 acres, which sold for $663,020.40. For 
the year ending March 31, 1910, there were 176 entries, embracing an 
area of 23,413 acres, which sold for $608,813; and down to August, 
1910, there were but 17 entries, with an area of 1,720 acres, which sold 
for $33,910.60, making a disposition of the coal lands in the last two 
years of about 60,000 acres for $1,305,000. 
The present congress, as already said, has separated the surface of 
coal lands, either classified or withdrawn for classification, from the 
coal beneath, so as to permit at all times homestead entries upon the 
surface of lands useful for agriculture and to reserve the ownership in 
the coal to the government. The question which remains to be con- 
sidered is whether the existing law for the sale of the coal in the ground 
should continue in force or be repealed, and a new method of disposition 
adopted. Under the present law the absolute title in the coal beneath 
the surface passes to the grantee of the government. The price fixed 
is upon an estimated amount of the tons of coal per acre beneath the 
